Abstract
Building and strengthening communities is a part of the community development process. In this chapter, we discuss community development from the perspective of the ecological framework of human development that takes a systems approach to understanding development initiatives. The objectives of this chapter are first, examine community development approaches through a discussion of relevant inter-disciplinary literature; second, apply the ecological framework to understand the mutual interactions and influences among the various layers of the system; and finally, discuss how various structures and institutions are involved in building resilient communities. We argue that community development should be context specific and customized to the local historical, social, and cultural requirements. This can be accomplished when the process is participatory and collaborative with continuous feedback from the local households, change champions, and community-based organizations. In order to effect long-term sustainable community development, policy makers and practitioners need to work with local stakeholders and be cognizant of the influences of the various structures in the ecological context.
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Questions for Thought and Discussion
Questions for Thought and Discussion
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1.
What is community development? How would you define and connect community building and community empowerment with community development? Do you see any differences in the terminology used? Explain with examples.
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2.
Discuss the ecological framework presented in this chapter? How has this framework evolved over the years and why? Do you think the changes made to the framework are important? Why or why not?
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3.
Discuss the role of families in the ecological framework? How do families contribute to the community development process, and how does community development help in strengthening family resiliency? What other mediating structures contribute to family resiliency?
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4.
How does the ecological framework help in understanding community development? Are there other frameworks that might be more applicable? Conduct an online search to find how community development has been discussed by other researchers. Based on your research, discuss why frameworks are used to discuss community development. Explain with examples.
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5.
What motivates low-income people, people of color, youth and immigrants to participate in community development activities? What are the barriers to their participation? How is participation sustained from the beginning to the end of the process? And from year to year?
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Bezboruah, K. (2021). Building and Strengthening Communities: What Works? What Doesn’t?. In: Stout, M., Harrist, A.W. (eds) Building Community and Family Resilience. Emerging Issues in Family and Individual Resilience. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49799-6_1
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